Tuesday 23 June 2015

Slightly Bruised Taylor Swift Apples???

Everyone is talking about Taylor Swift getting corporate giant Apple to change their plans and pay artists during the free trail period of their new music streaming offering, Apple Music. 

It all started with Miss Swift alluding that she would not allow her music to be available on Apple Music if artists weren't getting paid. 

Everyone commended her for stepping up and the accolades grew once Apple announced that they decided to switch and will now pay artists during this period. 

THANK YOU TAYLOR SWIFT...

But something seems fishy to me in this.

Why is Taylor Swift the only artist we're hearing complaining about artist not getting paid during the trial period? There must have been others who complained. Why were their no other artists rallying to support Taylor Swift and get behind her threatening to pull her music? 

Then I noticed something. Every single report, feature, blog, post, etc talking about Taylor Swift and Apple mentions the FREE TRIAL PERIOD. Sure that is a key part of the story, it why Miss Swift supposedly posted her comment in the first place, but could this simply be a publicity stunt to create awareness about Apple Music? 

When you think about it, yes the artists benefit from Apple now saying they will get paid during the trial period...but with how much this was in the news over the past couple of days, how much free publicity did not Apple Music get, but the fact that they're going to be offering a free trial period of the streaming service? 

In an era where a large portion of the music consumers are under the impression that music is free, what do you think they took away from all the media coverage? That the artists will now get paid or that they could get access to a streaming music service for free? 

The other thought that popped into my head was, did Miss Swift's sales increase due to this media attention? Did people rush to iTunes and buy her music before it was to be pulled? Will Taylor Swift be the first artists Apple Music users look for when they first get access? I know when I first went onto Napster after hearing about their battle with Metallica, Metallica was the first artist I looked up. 

I could be totally wrong on these assumptions and if there is anything I'm missing that's been said by either party to prove my theory wrong, please let me know. The music industry, more specifically musicians need someone to be our hero...personally I'd rather it be someone like Dave Grohl rather than Taylor Swift...but a hero is a hero and if she's the one stepping up to the plate, hopefully it's for legit reasons. I'd hate for her intentions to be tarnished. 

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